New purple passionfruit varieties developed for Australian growers

An unpleasant future has been averted for Australians who love purple-skinned passionfruit, ensuring there will be delicious new fruit to try in the coming years.

For the first time in more than two decades, a range of new purple-skinned varieties has been developed for farmers to evaluate.

The problem

Just three years ago, growers in passionfruit's historical heartlands of south-east Queensland and northern New South Wales were extremely worried.

The reliability of the popular hybrids Sweetheart and Misty Gem had been failing for more than a decade, pushing some farmers out of the industry.

The vines have been producing fewer, smaller fruit and have become increasingly susceptible to pests and fungal disease.

Growers and the federal government co-funded an urgent Hort Innovation research program to find replacements.

But in 2023 their hopes fell flat when the project leader left, and more than six years of work stalled.

Rescuing the program

The Queensland Alliance for Agriculture and Food Innovation (QAAFI) at the University of Queensland took up the challenge, and their rapid progress is providing hope.

The mood was optimistic as growers gathered at the Maroochy Research Centre.

They tested nine of 22 new purple-skinned varieties the program has already produced, with many more in the pipeline.

Fruit was laid on the table and judged for its flavour, internal and external appearance, aroma, sweetness, balanced with acidity, and aftertaste.

"We didn't have new [purple] varieties for a long time, more than 20 years," senior research fellow Mobashwer Alam said.

"I'm really excited, I'm very happy."

'Phenomenal' progress

Dr Alam has worked on other plant breeding programs where producing a new macadamia variety took 24 years, and sorghum, more than four.

Determined to accelerate the work with purple passionfruit, he assembled a team of academics that collaborated with growers to propagate and trial new purple-skinned varieties in different locations.

"The progress that UQ has made here over the last three years has been quite phenomenal," Passionfruit Australia executive and Tweed Valley grower Dennis Chant said.

While growers are still deciding on which varieties to trial on a commercial scale, Dr Alam admitted to having a personal favourite — UQP1.

"That is producing a lot of fruit … and it produced throughout 75 per cent of the year, so growers will make profit because they don't drop all at once," he said.

"They start early and finish late, so the growers can collect and sell to the market for a long time."

Put to the test

Brad Millard is one of the growers needing reliable replacements for Sweetheart and Misty Gem.

"We didn't realise how good we had it," Mr Millard said.

He is trialling QAAFI's new varieties in Valley Passions' nursery about 190 kilometres north of Brisbane, where he grafts passionfruit for the industry.

"We get the first look at them to see whether they'll be commercial or not," he said.

"It has to eat well, it has to look good, but after that it's just ease of growing."

The history of passionfruit

Originating in the Amazon rainforest in Brazil, passionfruit was commercialised in the late 1800s, cultivated for its sweet seedy fruit that is both eaten and juiced.

They are considered a good source of fibre, potassium and vitamin C.

The Australian Horticulture Statistics Handbook 2024/25 valued the crop at $30.8 million, with 5,522 tonnes of fruit produced, with the majority sold as fresh fruit.

Consumer trends still favour purple-skinned passionfruit, but Panama-style varieties have helped expand the industry geographically.

They have pretty red to light yellow and golden skins.

Queensland grew 59.2 per cent of the passionfruit crop that financial year and New South Wales 34.2 per cent.

There were a small number of commercial growers in Western Australia, the Northern Territory, South Australia and Victoria.

Despite Vietnam and New Zealand having permission to send fresh passionfruit to Australia, the fruit you will find for sale here is Australian-grown.

Hort Innovation has no records of fresh passionfruit being imported in recent years.